Thoughts on Brad Mills as the second anniversary of his hiring approaches

It was two years ago this week that Brad Mills was hired to manage the Astros. What seemed to be a very solid hire at the time looks even better now.

Let’s count the ways.

He’s an excellent communicator and holds players accountable. Forget everything else you think you know about managing a Major League Baseball team. If a manager doesn’t do those two things, he has no chance of succeeding, and then all the other stuff we use to evaluate them doesn’t matter.

Too often we focus on whether he sent the right guy up to pinch hit or brought in the right reliever or played the infield back at the wrong time.

Those things are important in the sense that they reflect a basic competence and belief system. But managers can run lineup combinations through a computer and have coaches help direct game moves and pitching changes.

Perhaps more than ever before, a manager must be able to deal with people. He has to let them know he cares about them and be able to define their roles.

Some players will say they don’t need a manager who talks to them. They come in, see their name in the lineup and go play.

That’s bull. Every single one of us — whether it’s me or you, or Albert Pujols — wants to know his boss cares about him and appreciates what he does.

Baseball’s best managers reach out to most of their players almost daily. Sometimes it’s done in casual settings, and to many times the conversation has nothing to do with baseball.

Braves GM Frank Wren told me years ago that it was a thing of beauty watching Jim Leyland interact with his players when they both worked for the Marlins.

For instance, Leyland would chatter away with his guys during stretching exercises. As Wren watched more closely, he came to understand there was a method to what Leyland was doing.

In these daily chats, he would reach out to the guys on the bottom of the roster, draw them into the conversation, have some laughs at their expense. In short, he was making them feel like part of the team.

Jim Crane and George Postolos will have plenty of things to fix if they take over the Astros this fall, but the manager’s job is in good hands.

In this vein, Mills will make his way around the outfield during batting practice to pay a brief visit with almost every player. There’s a magic to being able to get a group of men to play with a singular purpose, and Mills does this well.

But managers must keep players in the loop. When a player’s role changes, the manager must deliver the message honestly and without hesitation.

In all these things, Brad Mills is very good. Every player knows where he stands. He may not always agree, but he at least knows he can have a give-and-take about it.

Mills has been able to walk that hard-to-define line to get his players to like and respect him while knowing they can’t take advantage of him.

There’s a decency about Brad that plays well over the long haul. He’s consistent with what he expects of players.

He’s also got a tough side. He demands his guys play the game a certain way. He will not tolerate disrespecting either him or the game.

Jim Crane and George Postolos will have plenty of things to fix if they take over the Astros this fall, but the manager’s job is in good hands.

This isn’t a popular opinion because Mills is 132-192 in two years on the job. Even though he has been put in terrible circumstances, there are people who believe he’s part of the problem.

He has been put in a terrible situation, first with the lack of talent and then with the ownership stalemate.

He has worked relentlessly to keep the Astros respectable. He and his staff are on the job around eight hours before a night game preparing scouting reports, discussing their players.

Brad doesn’t sleep much after losses, so he has missed a lot of sleep during these two years. He lies in bed replaying the game, thinking what he could have done differently.

As if all that wasn’t enough, a lack of leadership in the clubhouse is a continuing problem. There’s also one very toxic personality in that room, and if Jim Crane doesn’t do anything else between now and Kissimmee, he absolutely, positively must get rid of that one guy.

Brad waited a long time for this opportunity. He got just 168 ABs in the big leagues, his career ending when he suffered a gruesome knee injury at 29. He underwent a knee replacement procedure just last winter and worked in pain last season.

After his playing career, he started over again, working 11 years as a minor league manager and 11 more as a major league coach before getting this opportunity.

Brad doesn’t do himself any favors with his consistently bland, consistently positive public spin on the team. It’s irritating to hear his talk about “quality at-bats” after another 8-1 loss.

Fans want to know that the manager cares as much as they care, and after games, they want to see some emotion, some anger. They want him to stand there and call players out.

It’s not about criticizing players individually. Such a thing would be suicide, and even the toughest major league managers — La Russa, Leyland, Scioscia — don’t do it.

But fans would like to see him riled up after a loss. That’s not Brad. Whatever anger he feels is going to stay inside.

Phil Garner was doing a routine post-game interview a few years ago when someone noticed the door behind him appeared to have had something thrown against it.

When Garner was asked about it the next day, he smiled.

“I had to take my frustrations out before you guys got in here,” he said.

Mills can’t change now. To change now would be phony. And throwing a public tantrum is a small thing compared to all the good stuff Brad brings to the job. The Astros are lucky to have him.

None of this is Mills fault. This is ALL on Drayton. Mills should stay until such time that we have decent players so he can be honestly judged. Right now there is no coach in history who could have done any better with this sorry team thanks to Drayton.

BINGO !! McLean reminds me of the golfer, after hitting a hole-in-one is upset because now he has to buy drinks for everyone…baseball is more than just a business…it’s understanding that goals set are long term not to be given up on…just look at the Cardinals and Nolan Ryan, baseball is imbedded in these organizations because it is part of their very being

Sorry RJ, Mills is not anywhere near the manager the Astros need. Aside the fact the team personal aren’t very competent , less so with Mills. His reasoning for handling game situations borders on a flat brain wave.
BTW, thank goodness that Ron Washington wasn’t forced to bring in a reliever ,
as he would have brought in that clown again, and would have blown the game. Holland deserves MVP for his heroic efforts and not have Capt Ron make another sad mistake. When something isn’t working, don’t keep going back to it.

No, I disagree completely. Crane and his minions should allow the Red Sox to bring Mills back home to the Boston dugout and take the premium minor league prospect that they’ll get in return for his managerial services. Same goes for Ed Wade, who CLEARLY will merit two premium prospects from whichever organization hires him away from the Astros.

Enough with the butt kissing Richard, Brad Mills SUCKS, he is not the right person for the job. Mills has been outmanaged all season and his inability to get through to the young talent, the main reason he was hired, has been non existant. Richard your lips are soon going to become as big as the Astrodome if you continue to kiss so much butt.

the toxic personality is wandy. he’s a prima donna, but because of the lack of media attention, no one cares to ask him a question. he’d be exposed in markets like boston, new york, or chicago, and everyone would know.